OF ARTS AND SCIENCES. 281 



from the vicinity of Mt. St. Elias on the American coast and from the 

 Alaskan Islands. In the absence of all evidence that it inhabits any 

 pait of the Asiatic continent, one might be disposed to discard the Lin- 

 ntean name : but Siberia was a very indefinite geographical term ; and 

 we have the species from Bering Island, not far from the Asiatic shore. 

 Linna?us described this species as a perennial ; yet the specimens gen- 

 erally show a clearly annual root. We now know, from memoranda 

 and fine specimens supplied by the Messrs. Howell, that while in ex- 

 siccated soil it is a pure annual, yet when better nourished it is more 

 enduring, and bears oifsets on stout stolons from the crown, and so, 

 in the absence of much winter's cold, its life is continued and extended 

 from year to year. 



Var. HETEROPHVLLA, includes the various forms with leaves (espe- 

 cially the radical and sometimes the cauline also) varying from ovate- 

 lanceolate to linear-lanceolate or even linear. C. Vnalaschkensis, var. 

 heterophylla, Nutt., & C alsinoides, var. heterophylla, Torr. & Gray, Fl. 

 Not uncommon on the Columbia River, where the extreme forms are 

 singularly unlike the ordinary broad-leaved plant. 



Var. BULBILLIFERA, C. bulhifera, Gray, Proc. Am. Acad. xii. 54, 

 found by Greene in the Scott Mountains of N. California, and recently 

 by Howell in adjacent Oregon, appears to be only a form of G. Si- 

 birica, with thickened bases of the radical leaves, which persist on the 

 crown as bulblet-scales. 



•h- H— Bracts few and minute or none : leaves more succulent ; cauline 

 pair commonly connate into a disk. Sjsecies seemingly confluent 

 in a series. 



C. PERFOLiATA, Donn. A weedy species, not known to have linear 

 radical leaves, with pedicels seldom longer than the fruiting calyx (2 

 lines long) and apt to be fascicled or in pairs ; the seeds large, turgid- 

 lenticular, very shining, but granulate. 



C. PARViFLORA, Dougl., seems on the whole to be a good species, 

 with radical leaves varying from spatulate to filiform-linear ; cauline 

 pair usually less discoid-connate, sometimes distinct on one side ; flow- 

 ers smaller and scattered in a loose raceme (yet sometimes all glomer- 

 ate on the disk in both species), on slender pedicels : petals commonly 

 pale rose-color, hardly double the length of the calyx : seeds only half 

 as large as those of C. perfoliata, obscurely if at all granulate. 



Var. DEPRESSA. A depauperate and depressed form, rather of this 

 than of the preceding species, of which it has the broadly rhomboidal 

 or ovate radical leaves (only a quarter-inch broad) ; and the small 

 flowers are, so far as seen, glomerate-clustered on the foliar disk ; the 



